Shaf, a physics teacher and a philosopher, fought as a partisan in the Balkans during the Second World War. He has not been heard from for 40 years. How could such an ubiquitous and expansive person disappear? Did the murder of his mother and girlfriend by fascists during the War spark his sporadic displays of insanity? Rumours had him teaching in the United States and Europe during the Cold War. Ben, Shaf’s former student and now a lawyer in Zurich, finally meets up with Shaf in their hometown. The encounter does not turn out as expected. Peopling the story are four generations of a Balkan family. An 1890 Remington double-barrel shotgun appears and disappears throughout the story.

Set in Sabzic, a fictitious town in an unnamed country in the Balkans, Shaf and the Remington chronicles the lives of a family, a people, a town and a nation, from World War I to the end of the Cold War.